As an ophthalmic photographer by day, and a crafter by night, I welcome you to a world of my favorite things: crafting, primitives, folk art, photography, antiques, thrift stores, and general weirdness! Hope you find a few ideas here; Happy Crafting! :)

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th! Having some extra time off means extra time to get crafty! I have been wanting to make this Mickey dessert stand since I saw a similar version on Pinterest years ago. It was super easy and cheap. Would be great for a kids party or if you just plain love Disney like me! 🙂

I found the red vase and black plate at Goodwill. You could use a shorter dish for the base, a smaller black plate, etc., to customize the size of your stand! The buttons and silicone adhesive I had on hand. Make sure to use a strong glue made for glass or ceramic.

I applied a generous amount of the silicone adhesive to make sure it was nice and sturdy.

Let dry completely.

I could not find yellow buttons so I painted them!

Once dry, glue on the buttons. Proceed to bake many desserts so you can use your new stand! 🙂

After my penny rug magnets, I’m on a magnet kick! I can’t stop gluing magnets to things! Here are some of the pieces I’ve been using to make new magnets. I found these awesome giant wooden buttons at Michael’s for $1 per package. 🙂

This bag of birch discs set me back only a few bucks at Michael’s.

I love to pick up vintage wooden puzzles from the thrift store to make magnets out of. They come in all kinds of fun designs and shapes.

First I decided to stamp the birch discs. For small objects like these, I like to lay the stamp down on it’s back and then press down the wooden piece right where I want it. That way I can see the design on the stamp and can line it up better.

Next, glue on the magnets. Hot glue does not work well for this project; the bond is weak and the magnets pop right off. I use tacky craft glue for a strong hold.

Here are the finished birch disc magnets. I love ’em!

Here are the buttons…

And the retro puzzle pieces.

Lastly, I had a few miscellaneous pieces that I decided to make into magnets too. Some rusty stars that I added some twine bows to, and some rustic white shapes that I stamped.

For some reason, magnets always sell really well. I plan on displaying them on some enamelware pots and pans up on the wall at my co-op. I will price them all between $1-$2. They also make great stocking stuffers come holiday time! What kinds of crafty supplies do you have lying around that you can turn into magnets?!?! 😀

Here are some very simple winter signs that I made using some wood plaques I picked up at the thrift store a while back. They were half off, making them a dollar each! Even if you’re not great at painting free-hand, these snowmen are really easy!

First I painted the plaques black using a basic craft acrylic paint. They weren’t covered completely with one coat, but that’s okay because the next step is to distress them with sandpaper.

Just take a small piece of sandpaper and give them a good once-over.

I speckled some white paint to make the “snow” effect, using some slightly watered-down white paint and a firm paint brush. I just pulled the bristles back and flicked it over top of the plaques. I then free-handed the words and painted big white circles for the snowman heads. You could also use foam stamps or stencils for the words.

Next, paint big orange noses, little pink circles for the cheeks, and black dots for the eyes and mouths.

Once dry, I did one coat of sparkle mod podge. It acts as a sealer but also give them a little sparkle. This step is not necessary though if you’re going to be keeping them inside.

For hanging, I simply used two small nails to tack down a strip of torn homespun.

Here they are, all finished. You can’t really appreciate the sparkle in this pic, but they look quite festive in person.

And here’s a pic of them hanging up in my booth along with some of the Christmas crafts I made in the last few posts!

The holiday craft bug has bit me and I just finished up another project; a big batch of winter jar scenes using mason jars and bottle brush trees. I have seen them on Pinterest, so here is my version. 🙂

I started by gathering some jars. I used some mason jars I had on hand, and found these ones at Target. I also got a few jars of different shapes, at the Goodwill for super cheap.

The two small jars on the right are salt & pepper shakers I got from Walmart. I love these cause they are like mini snow globes!

I used various bottle brush trees; all of which I found at A.C. Moore in either the doll house/miniature section, or the seasonal Christmas section. I also found some cute mini gold reindeer, perfect for this project.

The ones with the wooden bases were easy to glue in place. I used hot glue and they seem to be holding pretty firm on the glass. Some people who do this project don’t even glue them down. They will simply add their “snow” and then stick the trees down in. I like them glued in place so they don’t keep falling over.

The ones without wooden bases posed a bit of a challenge. I created a ball of hot glue on the ends to use as a base. Looking back it would have been easier to use some clay or floral foam, but too late now!

I then added the “snow.” I started out using coarse sea salt and when I ran out, I got Epsom salt. They both work great as snow. The Epsom salt had a peppermint smell too, which is perfect for Christmas crafts! 🙂

I used tweezers to place the small deer in the snow and big tongs for the deeper jars. I must say this part was a challenge. I did not glue the deer in place because they’d be almost completely covered with the snow. I did push them down in pretty good, and because they are light weight, I am hoping they won’t move around too much.

I picked up this wad of tin garland at the thrift store last year and stashed it away because I knew I could cut them apart and use them to accent winter crafts. I used the snowflakes to tie around the tops of the jars to give them a little extra country Christmas look!

Here is one of the completed jars with the snowflake tied around the neck of the jar. I love how they came out!

For the smaller jars, I left out the deer and just did a little tree scene, and accented it with a raffia bow.

Here are a few more!

For these larger jars, I thought I’d make them into candle holders. I put a small glass tea light holder right into the mouth of the jar. You can get these small glass tea light holders at the Dollar Tree.

And remember these from last year?? I had some smaller trees left over and decided to use them up on these cute car ornaments! I got the cars last year after Christmas at Walmart. I am selling them for about $5.50-$6 each. Honestly, I will probably break even on the car ornaments, but I don’t care because they were really fun to make and a fun item to sell around the holidays!

I’m selling the winter jar scenes are ranging from $4-$8 at my co-op, so we’ll see how they go. Hope everyone has a Happy Turkey Day! 🙂

Happy Independence Day to all my crafty friends out there! A day off work meant a little time to do some thrifting this morning, and boy did I score some great stuff! It also got the crafty juices flowing and I decided to do a little bit of tinkering with some left over mason jars and jar-filler ideas. I always seem to have an abundance of mason jars from other projects, garage sales, etc. I can never resist buying them if the price is right, because I always seem to find a use for them! 🙂

Forgive me if you’ve seen similar pictures and content from previous posts – this is just a recap of all the jar filler ideas I’ve done in the past few years! 😀

The first set of jars I filled with glass marbles. They look great as is, but would also look nice with a twine bow or homespun ribbon tie. I like them just plain!

Where did I get the marbles you ask? You’ll never believe it…

The dollar store!!! Not the Dollar Tree, but a random dollar store called “Real Deals.” That’s why I say you have to stop at all different kinds of dollar stores whenever you see them, because you just never know what kind of great crafting supplies you’ll find! I love these because they look genuinely vintage, but were a fraction of the price!

Vintage buttons make for another great jar filler. These two particular jars are for sale in my Etsy shop. Old buttons are so beautiful and interesting to look at, so why not display them as art? 🙂 I also like to use other types of glass jars like this one on the left, which I think is a vintage jam jar. Not sure though, but I love its textured look and weathered tin lid.

I filled the next set of jars with some “fixins” which I had lying around, waiting to be scented. I decided to put them in the jars unscented and will tie on a small vial of scenting oil to go with them, so people can refresh the scent now and again. I took out the flat metal lid that goes under the screw cap and replaced it with a square of homespun fabric. I think I will do a big batch of these for Fall and tie on a little tag with a crow or pumpkin on it. I buy these rosehips/putka pods in bulk from various suppliers online.

Here are a few jars I have filled that are already decorating my house. More vintage buttons and clay marbles from a flea market.

Dang I love those old clay marbles! I think it’s the palette of earth tone colors that gets me. 🙂

Here’s how I have some jars displayed, just to give you some ideas.

Another easy and cheap bowl filler idea are old Christmas tree bulbs! I find them at every freakin garage sale and estate sale I go to, always buried on the big table of Christmas crap that no one wants. Therefore, they are often very cheap! Obviously these would be great sellers at Christmas craft shows. Accents with a little jingle bell or Christmas themed fabric ties would look great too!

My last idea for today’s post are old keys. I buy lots of skeleton keys where ever I can, and they often include random other types of keys (more like “modern” key shapes and generally more boring/run of the mill keys) which I usually toss to the side. This is the jar I found at the thrift store today and I thought they’d go perfect together. I really like how it looks and think I’ll keep this one. 😛

Well here they are all together! I am obsessed! I love them all!!!

Some other ideas that come to mind are:

Acorns

Cool lookin’ seed pods

Potpourri

Sea Shells

Sea Glass

Wax tarts

Jacks (the old children’s game)

Old pins, brooches, or vintage clip on earrings

What other jar filler ideas can you guys think of? Send me pics of your jar decorations and I’ll post ’em here! Have a great 4th!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all my fellow Irishmen & women! 🙂 Before I get to today’s craft project, I thought I’d share an update on the primitive crate shutter I made. I finally found a little pip berry wreath at my friend June’s antique store, and it was the perfect size to place right in the center of the shutter! Woohoo!

I used some thin green floral wire to tie it on the shutter, sliding it between the slats of the crate boards, and securing on the back.

I then used some jute twine, knotted through the pre-existing holes (from where nails held the crate pieces together) to make a hanger.

It’s heading over to my co-op this week. I am putting $22 on it. It only cost a few bucks to make – the pip berry wreath being the only expense. The rest of the supplies were on hand, and I was able to re-use an old dilapidated crate that may have otherwise gone in the burn pile! 🙂

Ok, and not for the single stem bottles project. It’s a “dollar craft” because these awesome little bottles are only $1 at Michael’s craft store! The rest of the supplies I had on hand.

You can accent the bottles with whatever you’d like! I decided to use rusty tin stars, little enamel number plates, and some skeleton keys. You could also use buttons, twine bows, little pip berry sprigs, faux berries or flowers, sea shells, antique broaches…be creative!

Took a strip of torn homespun fabric and used a hot glue gun to secure it in place.

Here are the finished bottles! They could be used for general decor or as single stem flower vases! 🙂

I am going to price them at $4 each and see how it goes!

And last but not least, some great thrift store finds! It’s quite a random collection of items, but cool nonetheless! I found a mint condition 1957 Chevy model car, a chunky primitive candle, a beautiful vintage brass and enamel bowl, and an old brass Eiffel Tower bottle opener!

I also found a colorful enamel pot, a wooden wall decor/candle holder, and another little brass elf dude that I could not resist. Vintage brass seems to sell really well on Etsy and in te co-op.

The major score of the trip was a bag of vintage brass horse buckles / tack medallions, in a variety of designs and shapes. I thought they were trivets at first, but upon further research I found that they are used to decorate horse tacks and bridles. They are collectible and are oh so cool!!! Some will go to the co-op and some on Etsy!

I know I have done marble magnet posts before but I really haven’t had much else going on in the crafting department, so I thought I’d do a step-by-step post again as a “refresher course” if you will. I also came up with a new and different way of packaging them, which I thought may be an option for those wanting to make these for craft shows! 🙂

First you have to decide what your content will be. I created 1″ customized images for a friend’s wedding, using Photoshop. You can really use anything to create your magnets – magazines, scrapbook paper, or create your own themed images.

Here are the main supplies I used. Magnets (Walmart), clear silicone (Lowe’s), clear plastic cabachons (allstarco.com) and a plastic tool thingy that I found in my utensil drawer. You can use anything to apply the silicone – a toothpick works just as well.

You can use different supplies, like clear glass marbles (from the Dollar Tree) instead of the plastic cabs, but I highly recommend that you use the silicone shown here. Others use Mod Podge, craft glue, etc., but I have had absolutely awesome results using this clear silicone. It is also very strong and will make your magnets last for years.

I also used a 1″ hole punch to make my images the exact correct size. You can cut them out if you’d like, but this is definitely a great tool if you’re planning on mass producing these things.

Put a pea-sized dab of silicone on your image…

And smush down the cab or marble, applying even pressure. Any excess silicone that spills out the sides can easily be wiped off with your finger or a paper towel. The image is instantly magnified.

I use the same silicone to apply the magnet. A little less than a pea-sized dab will do. It is very strong!

Next, for the packaging, I used a large tag-shaped punch and some heavy stock craft paper (both from A.C.Moore). The tag punches are very expensive, so I will always wait for a 50% off coupon before purchasing something like that. It is well worth the money though, because it’s a great tool.

Again, you could use a heavy scrapbook paper or whatever material you’d like. I printed out a poem on mine, which will be the back of the tag. Use the open side of the punch to line up your text/image before punching.

To get the magnets to lay flat on the tag, and not cling together, I used removable Glue Dots. Simply stick them to the backs of the magnets and stick them to the tag. This way you won’t have a nice package with a little ball of magnets that are all stuck together.

You could leave them as is, or bag them up. I used candy-making treat bags because they come in a variety of sizes and are very inexpensive.

Unfortunately I could not find the exact size I needed, so I had to improvise. I folded the excess bag over to the back and applied a small piece of clear scotch tape.

Then finish off with ribbon, jute, homespun fabric, or whatever you’d like. For these I did purple ribbon and a jute twine bow.

I got a chance to swing by the thrift store yesterday and boy am I glad I did! The key is to go often, because merchandise changes a lot in those places! I got some goodies that are already priced and ready to go in my booth. Cast iron candle holders, a counter top glass container, and some cute little country decorations. I also got some great brand-new rubber stamps, which will go in my Etsy store.

We all know how expensive stamps are, so this was a major score!

I also picked up some apple pie casserole dishes. They are not exactly my cup of tea, but these types of things sell very well around Fall time. People are thinking about Thanksgiving, comfort foods, etc., and always seem to be looking for casserole dishes.

Welcome to Eyeballs By Day, Crafts By Night!

As an ophthalmic photographer by day, and a crafter by night, I welcome you to a world of my favorite things: primitives, country crafts, folk art, photography, antiques, flea markets, thrift stores, eyeballs, and enjoying the simple things in life!